1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable device for collecting, in time sequence, information about the living body of a wearer of the device in his or her daily life.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is widely known that conventional living body information monitoring devices are used to continuously measure living body information to assist in health care, diagnosis and treatment. For example, step counters and the like are in widespread use, and count the number of steps made by a wearer in walking to determine the amount of exercise done by the wearer. In use of such step counters, measurement is continuously performed and measurement data is handled by being totalized, where the total number of steps in one day is used as an index for health care.
A U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,489 discloses an attempt to record bodily movements of a wearer in time sequence to use the recorded data in treatment and/or diagnosis.
By combining such living body information monitoring devices with pulse sensors and temperature in addition to measurement of changes in his or her bodily movements and in the amount of activity, it becomes possible to perform objective recording of such information in time sequence. However, the present applicant has pointed out a problem that these devices cannot obtain subjective information relating to causes, such as why the wearer was active, nor mental information such as how the wearer felt at the time. Thus, the applicant has proposed a portable device for collecting information about a living body, capable of periodically obtaining subjective information about the wearer as well.
On the other hand, the latest research is beginning to show interest in the relationship between cognitive faculty tests, which are used to diagnose Alzheimer's Disease and senile dementia, and behavioral patterns, and the relationship between the cognitive faculty tests and temperamental trends. Such cognitive faculty tests include several varieties such as immediate free repetition exercises in which 15 simple words such as “barley tea” or “mackerel” are shown consecutively on a computer screen at 3-second intervals, and then the patient responds by repeating these after 90 seconds; delayed confirmation exercises in which the patient responds by repeating the first 15 words of 30 words comprised of 15 new words added to the previous 15 words; and immediate confirmation exercises in which freely selected characters are displayed at random and the patient is asked whether characters that are displayed successively in time sequence were the same character or not, and so on. However, all of the tests evaluate the short-term memory faculty, and examine the function of the frontal lobe portion of the brain which governs this part. These tests are commonly called frontal lobe function tests, or cognitive faculty tests. Further, each of these tests (hereinafter, referred to as “cognitive faculty tests” in this specification) is performed using a computer at a hospital or a clinic.
Since the conventional cognitive faculty tests were performed using the hospital or clinic computer, they could not grasp subtle fluctuations in the memory faculty of the patient in his or her daily life.